I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to say that anyone who has read or seen Lauren Hill’s story has been touched by her courage, strength, and selflessness in some way.

Lauren Hill has diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare and fatal brain tumor located in the pons (where the spinal cord meets the brain). It is inoperable due to where it is located in the brain because the pons is the area that is necessary for survival. The tumor also spreads into healthy surrounding tissue.

About 100-150 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. The majority of patients do not survive past 2 years from diagnosis. Patients diagnosed with DIPG typically live 7-14 months after the onset of symptoms.

Lauren found out she had the disease in October 2013 yet she is spending her time raising awareness for this very rare type of pediatric cancer. Why?

With awareness comes research funding. Treatment for DIPG has not advanced in 30 years. The reality is that there’s not a whole lot we, the medical community, can do to stop the progression of the disease. Sure, we are able to provide radiation and chemotherapies which will slow it down for a few months, biding patients and their families precious time together. But it always comes back.

We need more research funding because we don’t know enough about the disease to develop curative treatments for it. Only four cents of every dollar the government spends on cancer research is dedicated to pediatric cancer. Then only a smaller subset is allocated to brain cancer. And an even tinier percentage is allotted to uncommon pediatric brain tumors like DIPG.

What we do know about DIPG is that it happens abruptly. Symptoms are a little bit different for everyone, but can include headaches, nausea, fatigue, double vision, weakness in limbs, difficulty speaking and walking, and confusion. It most commonly happens in children ages 6-9, but we have treated children as young as 15 months and as old as 25 years.

Currently what we can do for patients with DIPG, in addition to chemotherapy and radiation, is to control their symptoms, provide comfort, and to help them carry out whatever end-of-life missions and dreams they might have. Some want to go on a meaningful vacation with family members. Others want to continue going to school.

For Lauren, she wants to raise awareness of this awful disease so that others will not have to go through what she has, and to play her first and last college basketball game. So with her neuro-oncology team, under the leadership of Dr. Maryam Fouladi, along with members of our multidisciplinary team including nursing, rehabilitation, psychology and social work, we are doing everything we can to help Lauren fulfill her dreams.

The Brain and Spinal Tumor Program that I am a part of is grateful for the research funding that we have received from foundations started by generous families: the Cure Starts Now Foundation, the Jeffrey Thomas Hayden Foundation, Sophie’s Angel Run and the Pray~Hope~Believe Foundation.

The DIPG Collaborative donated funds to develop the International DIPG registry, which is based at Cincinnati Children’s. This is an international collaborative effort among physicians and researchers from North America, Canada, Europe and Australia to collect clinical data and tumor samples from DIPG patients in order to better understand the disease and ultimately find a cure. The European DIPG Registry is run in parallel by colleagues from Europe and is also funded, in part, by the DIPG Collaborative.

Through generous tissue donations from patients’ families we have started to learn more about the biology and genetic makeup of the disease. We are currently studying a drug that could potentially target a pathway that is activated in this disease.

But so much more needs to be done, and we need more research dollars in order to do it. 4% of the federal research funding is not enough to find a cure. Patients like Lauren deserve better. We owe it to them.

Mariko DeWire, MD, is a pediatric neuro-oncologist in the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute at Cincinnati Children’s with a specific interest in DIPG and aggressive tumors. She has a keen focus on development of new clinical trials and implementing quality of life interventions into clinical trials. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, drinking coffee, exercising, and traveling.

From one, whose entire family has had one form or another of cancer, all within the past 8months, all I know to say is,"you go, girl!"What an amazing young woman U are to do all you're doing, when I know personally what this is doing to U not just physically draining but mentally and emotionally as well,yet I think God has given U a purpose and a reason to push ahead and give those who've lost hope a new chance to stand firm again and fight with u to raise awareness and funds to find a cure. We need to find out why so little is allotted not only for this rare form(it's not that new),but for all forms of pediatric cancers-after all, they've only just begun to live their lives-they need a better than tiny amount of research funds to grow and do what most of us have taken for granted.Lauren you're a blessing and the jewels in your crown will far outshine those around u,simply because you've heard that still small voice and you're shouting it from the mountaintop! You Go Girl keep taking it to the streets for people to hear, learn and do! Many Blessings and Prayers for You. Stacey Cater